Tempest Minerals Ltd (ASX:TEM) has the diamond drill spinning at Master target in the southern part of the Meleya Project in Western Australia.
The program will comprise around 500 metres of diamond drilling into Master, which is a high-priority coincident geophysical and geochemical target to the southeast of the recent high-profile Orion drilling.
Hole WARDH74 represents just the third hole to be drilled into a new greenstone belt and Tempest’s diamond program is expected to be the first in multiple planned programs.
Aim of drilling
The initial diamond drilling has been designed to test the underlying geology with potential for follow-up drilling.
Master target was identified through magnetics and geochemistry but has recently been re-ranked to high priority.
This comes after incorporating results of large datasets generated from analysis of 2022 drilling in conjunction with preliminary results from a number of geophysical techniques being used in the region by TEM.
Numerous targets
Master is one of numerous targets identified by the company through ongoing data interpretation and fieldwork that has been occurring since 2018 at Meleya.
This anomaly is in the central southern section of the project, around 8 kilometres south of the Orion target and east of the project namesake Meleya Well.
It is defined by a large >1.5-kilometre-long northwest-southeast striking magnetic feature and is interpreted as representing part of or another previously unidentified segment of the mineralised Eastern Yalgoo Greenstone belt.
The ‘blind’ Master target with no outcropping rocks nearby was identified in early exploration data analysis by the presence of a prominent magnetic high and coincident anomalous geochemistry.
Encouraging samples
Samples over several kilometres contain up to 3% sulphur and multiple indicator metals which are considered highly anomalous irrespective of the presence of transported cover.
Tempest recently conducted further data analysis based on multiple new sources including extensive alteration and mineralisation in hole WARDH72/73 at the Orion target drilled earlier in 2022 and preliminary results from geophysical and other work in progress in the Yalgoo region.
These indicate the possibility of the presence of magnetite/pyrrhotite and sulphide-bearing mineralisation buried under cover.
What comes next
Tempest has the following work planned in the next couple of months:
- Drilling at Master scheduled to complete in mid-September.
- Multiple further drill programs are in preparation to begin late September to October.
- Multiple geophysical survey results due in September.
- Ongoing fieldwork and surface sampling across TEM projects suite with results due in October.